


just kiss like real people do

by zinabug



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, Body Horror, Character Study, Cuddles, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hugging, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, M/M, Touch-Starved, a little bit, again just a little bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:35:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26059606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinabug/pseuds/zinabug
Summary: Then there was Charles. He really loved him, and that hurt too, but it was different.The first time Charles held his hand, he cried. He cried for the first time in so long, he let himself have the emotions he wanted too— and he cried into Charles’s shoulder, staining his shirt with blood and tears, holding onto his hand so tightly that their fingers were white.
Relationships: Charles/Kevin (Welcome to Night Vale), Donovan & Kevin (Welcome to Night Vale)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 37





	just kiss like real people do

He wasn’t used to being touched kindly. 

At first he flinched away from any kind of touch, it hurt somewhere in his head, sometimes on his skin, but eventually, slowly, it became okay. 

And then it became something he loved, and missed. 

Then there was Charles. He really loved him, and that hurt too, but it was different. 

The first time Charles held his hand, he cried. He cried for the first time in  _ so long,  _ he let himself have the emotions he wanted too— and he cried into Charles’s shoulder, staining his shirt with blood and tears, holding onto his hand so tightly that their fingers were white. 

Kissing… Somewhere, deep deep in his mind, he remembered what it was supposed to be like to kiss. And he ran his hand along the scars on his face, and he couldn’t move his mouth in the right way, and it hurt him. 

Charles leaned over his shoulder and told him it was okay, told him that they didn’t need to kiss to love, and he brushed his lips over Kevin’s scars. 

He cried again. He’d been doing a lot of that lately. 

Charles held onto him every time, and then he just cried harder— because he was being  _ held  _ and  _ cared for, really honestly cared for,  _ by someone safe

And now there was Charles. He was there for Kevin if he needed him, all the time, and he would touch him— there were kisses and holding of hands and Kevin didn’t know how to return them. 

He pressed his nose into Charles’s cheek, because, after all, he couldn’t kiss— his lips simply wouldn’t form the right shapes— but he was learning how to touch. 

Charles would do the kissing for the both of them, kissing Kevin’s lips and cheeks and scars and telling him he was handsome and it was okay. 

The two of them leaned their foreheads together, Kevin holding onto Charles like the world would fall apart if he let go. He wished so hard to press his lips against Charles’s, to just kiss like the real people do, but he couldn’t. He could just press their faces together and hold him tight while the world spun around them. 

Hugs. He liked hugs. 

Being wrapped up in another person like that— it felt safe, felt like coming home. Only if he trusted them. If he didn’t, it felt painful and suffocating, like being buried by the desert. 

Being hugged by Charles, or Donovan, that was safe. 

Donovan was small, and he couldn’t reach Kevin for a proper hug— Donovan would hug him around the legs, and smile up at him, and Kevin felt  _ safe _ and  _ at home  _ in a way that felt strange to him. Strange, but  _ right _ .

His body didn’t feel right anymore. It was scarred and sharp and strange… he didn’t look in mirrors anymore. His face was strange and he couldn’t move it in the way he used too— couldn’t kiss, couldn’t frown— and when he tried it would bleed. 

He hated  _ them _ . Hated how they’d twisted his body and mind, and made it something strange to him. 

Charles told him he was handsome anyway, kissed his scars—  _ a reminder of something he couldn’t do, but he pressed that far down—  _ held him close and wiped the blood off his cheeks, ran his hands through his short, bleach fried hair, told him it was okay. 

It was going to be okay. 

He was going to make it okay. 

_ Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips, _

Charles’s hands were tangled in his hair, their foreheads pressed together, when he leaned forwards to kiss him. Kevin was suddenly filled with a surge of panic— he couldn’t even fully close his mouth, never mind kiss, but Charles kissed him anyway, ignoring his dry lips and scars and teeth—just  _ kissing  _ him,  _ really kissing him _ . 

_ we should just kiss like real people do.  _

  
  



End file.
